The Nobel Foundation in Sweden has granted World Scientific the rights to publish the complete set of Nobel Lectures in all subjects (from 1901 onwards). The publisher of these was originally Elsevier, which halted publication of these lectures in 1970.[6]

In 2014, the Singapore Literature Prize received flak for naming the non-fiction prizes after World Scientific, who sponsored the category.[7] A book World Scientific published, Lim Siong Guan's The Leader, The Teacher & You (2013), ended up co-winning the Prize for English Non-fiction.[8]